So....Let's Talk About Nazis

Josh,

I'm looking forward to this little project of ours. How long ago was it that we decided to do this anyway? May? New Years? I'm glad we've finally got the ball rolling. I know there's still a lot up in the air about what we want to do with this "blog between friends" but I think it's best for us to at least go ahead and get the ball running and see what this thing develops into.

So I wanted to get this started by talking about the movie we both saw this weekend, Inglourious Bastards. We talked some via text message about this last night. I said it might be as good as Pulp Fiction, which you disagreed with, but do you think that Tarantino will ever be able to make a movie that the majority of people will think is better than Pulp Fiction? The film has a near mythic perception among moviegoers. And what is that movie about anyway? Non-linear storytelling? Maybe existence of Providence in our lives? I love Pulp Fiction and it was definitely a better movie than Forrest Gump, but was it as good as Shawshank Redemption, story wise?

For me Bastard was the best storytelling that Tarantino has done sense Reservoir Dogs. But what I really wanted to ask you about was this. It seemed to me that the Nazi soldiers in the film were portrayed in a somewhat sympathetic light. Not in a, "makes us understand where they're coming from," but they just seeming as ordinary guys for the most part. Granted I'm talking about the foot soldiers, not the officers, with the exception of the heroically brave Sergeant that's battered to death by the "Bear Jew." For the most part these guys just seemed like ordinary Joe's without an ounce of cruelty in them. I don't remember hearing even one of these characters speaking a single demeaning sentence about Jews. Yet I still never felt any real pity for them when they met their end at the hands of The Bastard, except maybe for the "new Nazi dad" and that only lasted for a couple of seconds. Even the insufferable Fredrick Zoller was only well... insufferable.

So was this on purpose? Did Tarantino actually want us to see the average Nazi as an everyman just taking orders? Does that make Aldo's forehead swastika that much more powerful? Or did he want to make their deaths somewhat comical, and thus they needed to be more trivial in nature?

With that said, which character did you find to be more badass, 'The Bear Jew" or Hugo Stiglitz? I loved "The Bear Jew," but Hugo had his own theme music.

Seeing Bastards pretty much wraps up my summer movie season. It was the last movie on my "Summer Must See" list. I'll probably see District 9 due to all the good buzz and I might go see Public Enemies if I have some time to kill and it's still in the theatres here for the next two weeks. What about you? Are there anymore movies that you're still excited about seeing this summer or is that it for you too? Overall I think it's been a pretty strong summer for movies this year. Drag Me to Hell is probably still my favorite but Bastards and Star Trek are right behind. What about you?

Well, I'm off to order some nachos for dinner. Do they deliver nachos in Little Rock?

Peace out,

Pittman